Interviews

Rock Band: A Whole Lotta Rock

GameSpy: Before Guitar Hero, the conventional wisdom in the game industry was "peripheral games don't sell." Despite the success of Guitar Hero, was it hard to convince companies that a $170 game with three different peripherals could work?

Greg LoPiccolo: To our surprise, no, it wasn't difficult at all. Weirdly, it was all about the demo. We'd set up, crank through a few songs, let the other parties try for themselves, and that was enough to sell the concept to pretty much everyone we showed it to. It was astonishing, and also fun.

GameSpy: What's the process you go through to get a song integrated into Rock Band? Am I right that having MTV in your corner is a huge help?

Greg LoPiccolo: First, we need to secure the license for each song, and MTV has indeed been crucial in this area. They handle all the outreach to music publishers, record labels and musical acts, and have done a phenomenal job getting Rock Band in front of the artists that we want to feature. Once we've got the license in hand, we ask the labels and/or acts to find the multitrack masters that were used to create the original songs. This can be challenging, since many of those masters haven't been touched for years, and are sometimes impossible to locate. Once we get the prepped multitrack masters in-house, our crack audio team goes to work to author gameplay tracks for each instrument, as well as synchronizing stage lighting and character animation to the song. Then we test it like crazy, and it's ready to ship!

What's the story with the Fender replica guitar?

GameSpy: How do you go about choosing which songs to put in the game? You want to make sure all four instruments are engaged, right?

Greg LoPiccolo: It is a complicated balancing act between many different factors. The songs need to have parts that play well for all parts: guitar/bass/drums/vocals. We also try to balance our selections between different genres and eras, so that all kinds of rock music are represented in the game. Finally, we tend to gravitate toward songs we personally like, so there is definitely a Harmonix spin on the final song list.

GameSpy: Are there any artists out there who you would love to get in the game but just can't for one reason or another?

Greg LoPiccolo: Sure there are. You don't need to ask us, you already know who they are. But we haven't given up on anyone. As Rock Band reaches a wider audience, we have faith that a lot of holdout acts will come to understand that it's a whole new way for their fans to experience their music. Many acts have obviously already figured this out, which is why they often have approached us to be included in the game.

GameSpy: Let's talk about the Fender replica guitar. It looks phenomenal! But gamers have complained about its responsiveness as a controller and its durability after even casual use (much less my Pete Townshend-inspired windmilling). Is the hardware where you want it to be? Or are improved Fenders on the horizon?

Greg LoPiccolo: It is true, we had a problem with some of the of the guitars in early production run, which we regret. That problem has since been rectified, and we are getting really positive feedback on the revised guitars. If anyone has a guitar that is giving them trouble, they should contact tech support, which they can link to from rockband.com, and we'll get a new guitar to them quickly. With respect to responsiveness, we made some design decisions that took key aspects of the guitar in a different direction than people were used to, and we anticipated that it might take a while for players to get comfortable with the changes we made. Different players are going to have different tastes (just like with real guitars!), but for many players, including almost everyone at Harmonix, once you're comfortable with the Strat, you can't go back.